Gas alarm causes concern

THERE appeared to be much cause for concern in Richards Bay on Thursday morning as the ongoing sound of Foskor’s gas alarm penetrated the morning air.

The ZO was inundated with telephone calls as members of the public reacted to social media reports of schools and other businesses, as well as Foskor employees themselves, being evacuated in the wake of a major gas leak.

According to Foskor’s General Manager: Operations: Gas Division

Ezra Mlambo, apart from the routine alarm testing now being done on the first Thursday of every month rather than Friday, there were two other instances that morning when the alarm was triggered.

‘The first alarm, which went off at 9.25am, was the result of a power failure at the plant.

‘When power was restored and the plant re-started, the alarm was triggered after it detected a small leak in the pipes.

‘The second alarm, which went off at 10am, was a gas drill, which is routine on the first Thursday of every month as part of our emergency evacuation procedure.

‘Subsequent to the gas drill, the alarm went off again while starting the plant, and continued sounding.

‘This was established to be a false alarm.

‘Foskor acid division fully understands the concerns caused to our surrounding neighbouring community by the emergency alarm, and would like to assure all our stakeholders that this incident did not pose any danger or harm to anyone at any time.’

He said Foskor was taking the matter seriously and a detailed investigation would follow.his incident comes just days after the Richards Bay Clean Air Association AGM at which Richards Bay’s declining air quality was called into question after the year in review recorded the highest number of air quality complaints.